Joker (2019) takes a different approach to a DC film. It’s not a superhero or comic book movie, it’s a movie with a comic book character. Joker is a movie first, comic book second. This isn’t how other movies in the DC catalog go about their films. Justice League was a Superhero Movie, it was promoted as having superheroes first and a movie second. Justice League is an action movie without anything to say or tell. Joker has a message to give to its audience, that message being that society doesn’t help those who need it. Joker has few similarities to other comic book movies, even those outside DC. There isn’t really a similar comic book movie, DC or Marvel, that follows the same film structure that Joker does. Most of the DC or Marvel catalog are action movies, while Joker is a film that is structured like a character study.
As a film, Joker is a conventional film. As a comic book movie, it’s straight out of the left field. The audience sees the full transition from Arthur Fleck to Joker, and how society does not care for those like him. The ending gives a possible origin story for Joker, which is different from most other Joker origin stories, those involving a vat of acid and chemicals. The world of Joker is very clear, it’s uncaring and unsupportive. The world around Arthur Fleck is the origin of Joker, a man turned evil due to his surroundings. The society around Arthur Fleck is one that the film criticizes, in fact, that the basis of the film as a whole. Joker is a critique of our modern-day society and its inability to help those with mental illness. Arthur Fleck’s actions are seen as morally ambiguous. Is it his fault for his actions, or is it the society around him that gave him nothing else?
The actor who portrayed Arthur Fleck, Joaquin Phoenix, gives a perfect performance for this type of joker. Many of the people who entered the theatre of Joker (2019) expected a Jared Leto, Jack Nicholson, or Heath Ledger Joker. In fact, Jared Leto, the actor who played Joker in Suicide Squad and Zack Synder’s Justice League, was mad that a different joker film was made with him as the lead. Joker (2019) wouldn’t have been as good as it was if it starred Jared Leto. The film was created with Joaquin Phoenix in mind for the role of Joker, With the writers even going to say that “The goal was never to introduce Joaquin Phoenix into the comic book movie universe. The goal was to introduce comic book movies into the Joaquin Phoenix universe.” – Todd Phillips
Joker is a character study of a man set in a society that doesn’t want or care to help him. Character studies aren’t a proper genre or at least, you can’t sell a movie with a genre as broad as a Character study. Joker is a Character study, because the writer, Todd Phillips, outright said it was a character study, similar to films of Martin Scorsese. Joker is a Drama, a series of unfortunate events towards Arthur Fleck that led him to his transformation into Joker. Joker as a name applies in a different way to this joker than the others. Other jokers are called jokers because they have a clown aesthetic. Arthur Fleck is called Joker because society sees him as a joke.